Life As We Knew It
by Land of The Delta Blues
Summary: Ethan has a vision which ends up causing him and Sarah to run off together. While the town is searching for them, Rory accidentally reveals the truth about vampires and the town takes sides. Sequel to my other MBAV fic but can be read alone.
1. Chapter 1

**Plotline: **A few weeks after being changed Ethan has a horrible vision that causes him and Sarah to go on the run. However, the vision could be the least of their worries after Rory accidentally reveals the existence of vampires to the public and Whitechapel takes sides.

**Inspiration: **My first MBAV story, We Can Make it Through This, which this is a sequel to.

**Spoilers: **None for the series really.

**Rating: **T

**Pairings: **Ethan/Sarah, possible Benny/Erica.

**View point: **Third person.

* * *

"What is that smell?" Sarah wrinkled her nose and frowned.

Ethan looked completely uncomfortable "I'll just be in the bathroom."

"How much did you eat?" Sarah laughed.

"Not much just a pint...or four."

"You can't eat that much...your stomach will be irritable and you'll be stinky." she clamped her hand over her nose "now go!"

"I'm going!" Ethan mumbled getting up from his spot on the couch. A sudden powerful wave of nausea hit him. He stopped to clutch the arm of the chair Jane was sleeping in. Sarah noticed his body tense up even more and immediately assumed he was about to be sick on the floor. Instead, he pulled his hand away from the chair sharply.

"What is it?"

He didn't bother to answer and before she could react further, he was upstairs and heading for his room.

"You're acting really weird...weirder than usual" she added following him.

"No I'm not." he countered.

"Yeah, you are." her hand flew into the crack in his door keeping him from closing it.

Their eyes met and Ethan could see that Sarah was actually concerned. "Fine, I had a vision."

"Of what?"

"Of me standing over Jane's body with blood around my mouth." he opened the door further to let her in and began walking towards the closet.

"What are you..." Sarah started to ask until she saw the duffel bag. "You're running away?"

"It's probably the smartest thing I can do."

"No it's not! You have nowhere to go and you could have read your vision wrong." she knew he had misinterpreted his visions before but by looking at his face she could tell he wasn't willing to risk it. Sarah chewed the inside of her mouth for a few seconds, ignoring the pain before speaking again. "At least let me come with you."

Ethan wasn't sure of her motives so his response was quick and bitter "Why? I don't need a babysitter."

"Technically, I'm Jane's babysitter not yours." Sarah laughed "and that's not why I asked."

Ethan did an almost smile, he realized that he actually really liked the idea of having her with him, but he still wasn't sure if he wanted to drag someone else into it. "Are you sure it's a good idea."

"I've thought it over." Sarah smiled again. It was a lie, she'd put absolutely no thought into her words which was very uncharacteristic of her. However, she really didn't like the idea of him going on the run alone.

"Thanks for the offer, but I don't need to drag you into this."

She debated for a moment, "It's not optional, I'm coming with you."

"Why?" Ethan asked.

"You can't drive."

Ethan felt his heart sink. Of course he knew he shouldn't have expected any other response but he'd gotten his hopes up that maybe Sarah liked him as more than a friend. "I can fly or run."

By the tone of his voice, Sarah knew she'd said the wrong thing, " Not with that heavy bag and that's not the only reason I wanted to come with you...I, I um." she couldn't get the words she wanted to say to form so she decided to rely on actions instead. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, quickly pressing her lips to his. It was just a quick peck, but it was enough to get her message. By his smile she could tell that he returned her feelings.

"You're not in this alone." Sarah placed her hands on top of Ethan's and returned the smile.

Although realizing their love was a sweet moment, it didn't distract from reality for long and soon Ethan had finished filling the duffel bag with the items he'd need.

"Lets use the window so Jane won't wake up." Sarah suggested.

Outside, Sarah slipped her hand into Ethan's. With vampire speed it only took them a few minutes to reach her house.

"Nobody's home." Sarah pulled the key out from under a fake rock. "I need to pack my own bag."

Ethan started to follow her up the stairs before she stopped him, "Stay!" although her voice sounded almost cheery whenever she pulled back from kissing him to get him to obey, Ethan could feel moisture on his cheek. Before he could check to see if Sarah was crying she was gone.

He'd been in her house once before but considering that he'd been trying not to die he hadn't really paid attention to the surroundings. So, wanting to give Sarah her space he decided to look around. He was immediately drawn to the wall lined with family photos of course the ones with her in it were taken before the change but he still found them interesting. There was a photo of the whole family that looked fairly recent. Sarah was sitting in a chair next to a pretty middle aged woman who looked like a older version of her. There were two men standing behind them, the older man had pale skin, greying hair and blue eyes. The younger man who had to be in his early twenties had hair and skin the same color as Sarah's and their father's blue eyes.

"Why don't you have any family photos up in your house?"

Ethan jumped at Sarah's voice behind him...looking at her face there was no sign she'd been crying, but she wasn't smiling like she usually did either.

"I'm not sure."

"Oh come on," she kind of laughed but it was more forced than cheery. Was she as scared as he was?

Sarah quickly changed the subject when she realized she wasn't going to get anywhere, "I've got a full tank of gas and we can put our money together to pay for a hotel when we get tired, where do you want to go?"

"Wherever we end up when the sun rises."


	2. Chapter 2

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that Benny has been given a last name yet in the series and I don't remember his grandma having any name...so I'm giving her one this chapter. It's Ada Ryan by the way.

* * *

Ada Ryan was sitting at her kitchen counter with her spellbook when she heard a knock at the front door. "Who is it?" she yelled walking towards the door to open it.

"It's Jane Morgan...are Ethan and Sarah here?"

Ada shook her head despite knowing that the girl couldn't yet see the gesture, "I don't think so, but you can ask Benny." she opened the door and let Jane into the kitchen "shouldn't they be at your house?"

"I woke up and couldn't find them anywhere."

Benny was upstairs in the sitting room playing a video game and he was definitely alone.

"Do you know where Ethan is?" Jane asked.

"He should be at your house, we were supposed to have a Halo tournament but he ditched me to hang out with Sarah." Benny paused "Why isn't she with you anyway?"

"They're both gone." Jane responded.

"Are you 100% positive?"

"I checked every room in the house including the basement even though it scares me."

"If they're not there and they're not here..." Benny scratched his chin.

Two hours later Benny, Rory and Erica were sitting on Ethan's bed while the adults were downstairs talking with the cops.

"What do you think happened?" Benny asked.

"Maybe vampire ninjas abducted them!" Rory said excitedly.

"Rory!" Benny and Erica both groaned.

"Well it's possible..."

"It doesn't make sense!" Erica said referring to Benny's comment. "Why would Sarah run off with dork boy?"

Benny gave her a dirty look. "It is odd though."

"Ninjas" Rory repeated.

"It wasn't ninjas." Benny groaned, "there's no signs of a struggle."

"Well maybe the ninjas were invisible!"

"Be quiet!" Erica hissed bearing her fangs at Rory.

"Well what's your theory?"

"I don't know yet." Benny sighed getting up to walk over to Ethan's computer desk.

"What are you doing?" Erica asked.

"Maybe they planned running away in e-mail."

"That's actually not a bad idea Merlin."

Even Rory was quiet while Benny logged into Ethan's e-mail account and began scrolling through the chat log. "They have been chatting a lot..."

"About running away?" Erica asked.

"Nope, apparently Sarah's became his vampire mentor."

"I never had a mentor!" Rory groaned.

"I knew she had a thing for him!" Erica muttered.

"I don't think Ethan would run away unless he was convinced to do so by Sarah." Benny stated.

"We've been best friends since preschool and she would never be selfish enough to do something like that. It is completely against her personality to not put the thoughts of others first!" Erica countered. "It had to be Ethan's fault!"

"I'm still standing by ninjas." Rory added. This time both Benny and Erica stared at him maliciously. "Or not...I umm I just remembered something at home." with that he took off out of the window.

"Why would Ethan decide to run away?" Benny asked again sounding almost hurt.

"I don't know, you're supposed to be his best friend." Erica hissed "you're supposed to know him." she scooted over on the bed only to find herself sitting on a book "why did you bring your spellbook?"

"I always carry it with me."

"Well maybe there's a spell that can solve this mystery." Erica said sarcastically.

"Wait, actually I think there is a spell that can create events that recently happened in a room." he walked over to grab the book from a scowling Erica and began flipping through the pages. "It's right here...Vices lost ut preteritus , permissum mihi recro lemma velox."

Suddenly a semi-transparent Ethan charged into the room.

"Your spell actually worked." Erica marvelled as a hand appeared in the doorway trying to keep it open.

"Shh!"Benny held his finger up, but it was no use even with Erica quiet the figures remained so too as a the scene played out.

Transparent Sarah had now convinced Ethan to let her into the room and Erica jumped up off the bed as the figure came closer only to walk right through her and sit down in her spot. Meanwhile, Ethan was walking to his closet where he pulled a duffel bag out and began running back and forth to the drawers and grabbing clothes.

Benny winced "I think she's screaming at him now."

"She doesn't want him to run away." Erica said softly.

Benny tried to read faux Ethan's lips with the next comment "He doesn't need a bath fitter?"

"He probably said babysitter, genius!" Erica groaned.

Faux Sarah looked like she was laughing and for a second faux Ethan smiled. Then they both seemed to turn serious and less than a minute later Ethan looked sad. Then Sarah looked nervous.

The next few seconds made Benny cover his eyes and Erica turn away.

"I feel like we're invading their privacy." Benny mumbled peeking between his fingers at the kissing figures.

"Technically we are...but I guess I'm happy for her." Erica turned back towards the scene as the transparent couple smiled goofily at eachother before Ethan went back to packing. "We still don't know why they ran away though." Erica groaned. "What's the point of a memory spell if you can't hear it?"


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you to TeamEthanMorgan for the last name help...anyway, the chapters will switch back and forth between Ethan and Sarah and Whitechapel...so this one is a Ethan/Sarah one.

* * *

"C'mon, start!" Sarah growled at the car as the engine finally roared to life after a few minutes of "coaxing". She took a few seconds to glance at Ethan in the passenger seat "How are you feeling?"

"I'm a monster aren't I?" he sighed.

"All vampires are monsters." Sarah responded.

"But I had a vision about drinking my baby sister's blood."

"It was just a vision Ethan." Sarah placed her hand on Ethan's knee in what was supposed to be a comforting.

"It wasn't just a vision, my visions predict the future."

"Visions can be misinterpreted...remember when you thought I was going to run away with Jesse because of that vision you had?"

"I don't think I can misinterpret drinking Jane's blood." Ethan growled gritting his teeth and pushing Sarah's hand off of his knee. He began to reach for the door knob "You really should reconsider coming with me."

There was a clicking noise as the door locked. "My mind is already made up. You're not doing something this stupid...alone."

A silent stare off followed which ended with Sarah putting the car into gear "I'm just as scared as you are you know."

Ethan didn't answer and Sarah had a feeling that if anything happened to her as a result of their actions he would never stop blaming himself.

For almost fifteen minutes neither of them spoke until Sarah decided that she couldn't take the silence anymore. "You know I don't really like night. It's silly because vampires have perfect eyesight at night. My point is unless you actually talk to me I could have this huge panic attack."

She could hear him shift in his seat and clear his throat "what do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know, what do you nerds talk about anyway?" Sarah briefly wondered if she'd regret suggesting a nerdy topic but her main concern was to make sure Ethan's mind wasn't on the vision which would be tricky since it was the only reason they were currently running away. It seemed to work, at least for another hour or so.

They were supposed to drive until dawn and Sarah knew that, but even vampires could suffer from a lack of sleep and by how Ethan was slumped against the window looking dead since vampires didn't breathe Sarah had a feeling he had succumbed to the urges. She knew that she was herself close to falling asleep. So, at one-thirty in the morning Sarah pulled into the parking lot of a Vancouver motel.

Getting a room was going to be tricky, of course whoever was behind the desk would have questions. That was why Sarah left Ethan sleeping in the car. He would never be able to pass as older than his human age. "I'll be back in a few minutes." she whispered stopping to give him a kiss on the forehead.

The guy behind the desk in the lobby looked bored, that is until he saw Sarah then he looked suspicious. Of course the questions came "Aren't you a little young to be..."

Time for a little white lie "I'm twenty-three."

He actually seemed to buy the lie, and it made Sarah sick when she realized that he was now looking at her very differently.

"I need a room, for two. I can pay cash." she tried to keep the conversation clipped and serious.

Five minutes later she had the key. After she had pulled the car up to the door of the motel room. "C'mon, I'm not carrying you."

"Where are we?" he was definitely dazed.

"Vancouver, at some cheap motel."

"Why?"

"Because I'm too tired to drive farther."

"I'm sorry, I should have figured that out from how tired I am...and" Ethan began feeling guilty for having expected Sarah to drive the whole night.

Sarah answered with a yawn as she unlocked "Don't beat yourself up. You had more important things to worry about." Sarah immediately growled under her breath when she saw the room. "I thought I specifically told the guy at the front desk that I needed a room for two."

"You could always go back and complain to him." Ethan suggested.

"I'd probably end up making a meal out of him."

"Why would you make a meal out of him?"

Sarah shot Ethan a glare and hissed at him._  
_

"On second thought you can make a meal out of whoever you want to."

Sarah stepped into the room with Ethan close behind "I guess this is our temporary home until we find somewhere else...I'm changing in the bathroom."

Once she had closed the bathroom door Sarah collapsed on the floor. It wasn't the first time she had cried within the past twenty-four hours and she had a feeling it wouldn't be the last. She realized that she might never see her family or friends again. Yet she couldn't really blame Ethan, she'd been the one that hadn't wanted him to run away alone.

Outside in the room, Ethan could hear the soft sobbing coming from the bathroom. She hadn't locked the door, but he wasn't sure if she'd be angry to be barged in on and might even attack him to cover up her emotions. He took a few steps towards the bathroom door before pausing for a few seconds. That's when he decided he'd made up his mind.

Sarah looked up as the bathroom door opened. If she hadn't been so stressed and saddened she probably would have ended up either admiring the view or laughing. Ethan apparently had been so urgently concerned for her that he'd forgot to finish changing his clothes and was now shirtless. Instead she didn't even bother to try to fight him as he pulled her close to his chest in a comforting hug.

* * *

Like, dislike? Also brownie points...or a reply to your review if you can tell me the MBAV schedule for the rest of the month.


	4. Chapter 4

"I just can't believe this would happen." Juliet Morgan told the cops "I don't know why they'd run away."

The police officer sighed, to him it was an open and shut case "Isn't it obvious?"

"No, I don't think so." Mrs. Morgan looked puzzled.

David Morgan was a little more able to read between the lines..."They weren't in love...she's the babysitter."

Benny and Erica chose that exact moment to walk down the stairs, done looking for an answer in Ethan's room.

"Actually, that's a false statement." Benny said.

The cop shook his head, "Just as I suspected...this isn't really a case for the police."

Erica looked like she was about to lose her temper and Benny could tell she was also a bit hungry "Our friends are missing...if you won't do anything about it I'll..."

"Don't," Benny hissed.

"Why?"

"That cop looks like he's ready to snap handcuffs on somebody."

"I could drain him before he'd have a chance." Erica hissed.

"Which would end up all over the papers and in the media and ruin the secret of vampires existence."

"Fine," Erica sighed, "but you're never any fun."

The officer apparently had decided that the disappearance wasn't worth investigating and had left by the time they were done whispering.

"What were you two whispering about?" Mrs. Morgan asked.

"Ethan and Sarah running away." Benny lied.

"Even if they wanted to be together, it's so unlike them." Erica added.

"Are you sure they were..." Mr. Morgan began only to be cut off by the loud slam of a car door outside.

"I wonder who that is?" Benny asked.

"Sarah's parents," Mr. Morgan responded.

"We should leave then." Erica whispered to Benny.

"Why?"

"Because Sarah's mom makes me look like a nice person."

"She can't be that bad. Sarah is..." Benny was cut off mid sentence as an African American woman entered the house practically slamming the door in her husband's face.

"This is all your son's fault! Our daughter would never run off without being forced to do so!"

Both Morgans looked like they weren't sure what to say and Sarah's father wore an expression that looked like a mixture of sadness, likely over the disappearance, and embarrassment, over his wife's outburst.

"Umm, our son..." Mrs. Morgan began only to realize any argument would probably prove fruitless. So far, Benny had provided the best reason on why Ethan and Sarah had run away together and even that didn't make much sense to the adults.

Sarah's father decided to take the silence to attempt to make introductions "I'm sorry, my wife's just angry about the police refusing to help. I'm Louis Fox, and this is Camille...we're Sarah's parents." he extended his hand for Mr. Morgan to shake.

"I'm David, this is Juliet. We're so sorry about your daughter."

Camille seemed to be done screaming but she didn't accept Mrs. Morgan's handshake either.

"We're not sure how this could have happened." Mr. Morgan said.

"The police seem to think they're just typical teenager lovers who decided they couldn't stand being apart."

"But it doesn't make sense." Louis placed his hands in his pockets..."Sarah didn't talk about having a boyfriend."

"Neither did Ethan..." Mrs. Morgan added "I mean he never mentioned having a girlfriend."

"According to Benny and Erica they were going out though." Mr. Morgan added.

"I suppose teens now days confide in their friends more than their parents." Louis added.

"Hasn't it always been that way?" all of the adults except for Camille laughed.

"But why now, what caused them to act now?" Mrs. Morgan wondered.

"I think they umm" Benny had felt the need to try to justify his friends' actions but couldn't quite complete his sentence since he wasn't sure exactly what had happened either so Erica stepped in to help.

"Thought that nobody would approve of the whole babysitter/client romantic relationship."

"But Sarah is Jane's sitter, not Ethan's..." Mrs. Morgan began "although it probably wouldn't have looked too good."

"Not for our daughter..." Camille mumbled and Benny and Erica exchanged worried glances afraid that things were about to go really sour. However, the Morgan's ignored the comment.

Before anything else could be said, Rory burst through the door. "I think I left my jacket up in Ethan's room."

"I'll get it for you." Benny turned to walk towards the bedroom door, wanting to get Rory out of the house as quickly as possible because he suddenly had a bad feeling in his gut.

"Great, so have you figured out if them running away had anything to do with them being vampires?" Rory said excitedly apparently not noticing the adults.

"Rory," Erica hissed.

"Vampires?" Mr. Morgan asked.

"Umm, don't listen to him...he probably inhaled some paint." Benny laughed.

"No, I didn't...I'm one too. See." and then before anyone could stop him Rory smiled, fangs fully visible.

* * *

I really disliked this chapter because I feel like it's too short and the whole calling Ethan's parents by their last names and Sarah's by their first names is awkward although I used it because I'm still getting a feel for the OCs. Anyway, I hope you guys disagree with me.


	5. Chapter 5

I know the last chapter left a cliffhanger which I will address very soon, but as I said in the chapter before that one it switches from Whitechapel to Vancouver every chapter which admittedly I usually hate too but it's a better way to write a story with two storylines.

* * *

Vampires only needed a couple of hours of sleep so the sun wasn't even close to rising when Sarah woke up still in the bathroom of the motel room. At first her mind was blank as to where she was and why she was there until she noticed Ethan asleep next to her with his arm draped over her shoulder. It was almost cute, except her heightened senses were focused on other things that she couldn't believe she hadn't noticed before. The bathroom and the surrounding area smelled strongly of cigarette smoke and bodily fluids other than blood and a dead roach was residing in the corner next to the toilet. However, it was too late to find another motel.

Ethan woke up and wrinkled his nose as the smells hit him. "What is...?"

"Human filth."

"So umm, what time is it?"

"I don't know, why...are you not used to sleeping in motel bathrooms this late?" Sarah teased.

At the mundane answer, both laughed a little, but they were nervous laughs that conveyed little amusement.

"I need an early morning snack." Sarah muttered. "Are you coming with me?"

"Yeah," Ethan nodded.

"I think I need to change first and you need to put your shirt back on."

For the first time, Ethan remembered his partial nudity.

They both walked into the bedroom area and Ethan grabbed his shirt off the bed while Sarah headed over to her bag and pulled out a pair of blue jeans and a purple blouse.

"Umm, what are you doing?" he asked surprised when she began to peel her dress off.

"I don't want to go back in the bathroom any more than necessary. Now please look in the other direction!" Sarah hissed.

Ethan started to turn away, "Wait, you saw me shirtless..."

Sarah aimed her throw at Ethan's head, but the boot flew wildly past him punching a hole in the wall.

Ethan started to point out the mistake, but thought better of it as Sarah held up the other boot. "I'm sorry."

Sarah didn't respond in a way that showed acceptance or rejection of his apology, instead she walked over to retrieve her shoe from the wall without a word. He wasn't sure if he was still invited on her hunt so he didn't move from his spot near the bed as she opened the door.

"Hey, Fang Boy...are you coming?" she asked in her sweetest voice, the one which had once made his heart race.

"Umm, yeah of course."

"Good, I don't feel comfortable going out alone."

Most of the streetlights were burnt out but the few that worked revealed how bad of a neighborhood the motel was in.

"I don't think these will be very good hunting grounds." Ethan mumbled.

"I saw a park a couple of miles from here." she tried to say as nonchalantly as possible but her expression told a different story. She looked exactly like a scared human teenager and he felt like it was all his fault. "I'm probably not going to be able to find a decent snack at this time of night anyway."

"If you need to eat couldn't you just like settle for an undesirable character?"

"Do you know how sick a vampire could get from biting someone with certain blood diseases?!"

"Well then why are we hunting right now?" Ethan asked slightly puzzled.

"Because that hotel room is disgusting and I'd rather risk getting sick than spend anymore time than completely necessary in there." Sarah admitted.

Fifteen minutes later, the pair was sitting atop an abandoned factory building lying on their backs looking up at the stars. For several minutes neither spoke.

"Are you angry?" Ethan asked nervously.

"No, well yeah but not at you." Sarah admitted turning on her side to look at Ethan. "You're just trying to protect Jane and I made my own choice."

Ethan started to argue with her only to realize that if he kept trying to convince her otherwise they'd both be miserable and he might lose his only connection to the life he'd had to leave. Instead he decided to ask a question "Are you going to miss your family?"

Sarah looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "I think I'll miss my brother and my father, but I don't think I'll miss my mother."

Ethan wanted to take time to formulate a proper response to show that he cared, but before he could think he caught himself blurting out an assumption. "In your family photo you looked like you were close to her."

Sarah almost responded angrily before she remembered that Ethan had never actually met her family. "You're assuming that just because we sat next to each other?"

Ethan was silent, figuring the best thing he could do was let her continue.

"You know that one person you want to please so badly, but everything you do turns out wrong? Well, my mother is that person. I'm constantly worried about trying to be that perfect daughter but I can never satisfy her." Sarah paused briefly "I'm sorry, you shouldn't have had to hear all of that."

"But you always seem to have a positive outlook on life..."

"Well, everything else in life has been good." Sarah laughed "except for the whole vampire runaway thing."

Her smile was so dazzling and infectious that Ethan found himself responding with one of his own. He desperately wanted to kiss her yet even after they'd already kissed twice he felt nervous about initiating it. So, he found himself asking for her permission first.

"You're actually asking for my permission?" she laughed "the answer is definitely yes though."

With that, his lips captured hers...it was slower than the ones before it yet just as gentle with nothing forceful or awkward about it. When the kiss ended they both smiled again.

Suddenly Ethan jumped as his cellphone, which he'd forgotten he even had on him anymore, rang.


End file.
